UofMUSCLE.com – M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures from Mattel

Rikishiman or Wolfman
By Professor Terry

Way back in MMMM #40, I wrote about how I like the M.U.S.C.L.E. #108 figure much better than the #156 figure. That is still very true but this week I’m going to dig a little further into the #156 Rikishiman and made a surprising discovery.

The major reason I like the #108 figure better is that he is dressed in more formal garb, giving him an aura of importance whereas M.U.S.C.L.E. figure #156 always reminded me more of a sumo wrestler which doesn’t appeal to me as much. Still, #156 isn’t a figure I cherish, nor is it a figure that doesn’t excite me – he sits in the middle tier. He’s okay.

It wasn’t until I pulled all my Rikishiman figures out for this photo that I realized how many different ones I actually own and just how much this version of Rikishiman is more popular among the Japanese lines in comparison to the #108 figure. Yes, I was aware he is a key figure in the cartoon and one of the heroes of the storyline yet taking this photo surprised me.

Let’s talk about some of these figures. Many of them would have been seen before in MMMM posts I have written such as the Deka, Re-Issue Deka and Great Kinkeshi lines. The three figures that jumped out at me in the photo was the Romando, the custom painted Deka and the half plastic, half rubber Bandai figure.

The Romando is really well made, I can’t believe he was hiding towards the back of my display. I nearly forgot he was even there. I guess I buried him back there due to his being an early purchase in my collection and that as I bought more Romando, he got pushed further back. Not any more, he’s going to the front. It’s an awesome piece for a Romando and has great poseability.

The custom painted Deka just fits really well with the Romando. He’s in the same color scheme which I must has chosen when I had it done. I’m pretty sure he wears the same color trunks in the cartoon as well. He comes alive in color like few other painted figures I own. The difference is amazing.

The plastic/rubber Bandai figure also has a very similar pose to the Romando which I didn’t notice before as I’ve never had these figures standing next to each other. He fits in really well and I guess that’s why this week taking the photo for MMMM was a real joy. It was like discovering some figures for the first time.

There were a couple of surprises for me this week but the most surprising discovery was that I actually like the Rikishiman #156 a whole lot more than I initially thought. Still not quite as much as #108 though.

In light of my discovery this week, I’d like to post a poll.

If you have a collection of different lines, which contained the same character, would you display them:

1. All figures in the same line together?
2. All figures of the same character together?

Happy to hear some comments on the matter as well.